Whiting-Gershwin

Home , Al Dubin, A Foggy Day, Buttons and Bows, Harry Warren, Love Walked In, Margaret Whiting

Richard Whiting – 1891-1938

Richard Whiting Margaret Whiting

Whiting was a popular song writer active in the 1920-30’s. He was born in Peoria, Illinois in 1938.He began a singing career in vaudeville and teamed with Marshall Neilan (who later became a movie producer), but the act was unsuccessful and Whiting took a job with the Remick Music Corp. He wrote for movies, the Broadway stage and in the Tin Pan Alley as part of the popular music publishing world. His daughter was the famous Margaret Whiting. Like many composers of the era Whiting wrote many songs that were considered ‘hits.’ Whiting’s first ‘hit' song was: My Ideal

A partial list of his hit songs include: Some Sunday Morning Sleepy Time Gal The Japanese Sandman My Ideal Ain’t We Got Fun Louise Sleepy Time Gal (Duplicate) Honey Breezin’ Along with the Breeze Guilty She’s Funny That Way Beyond the Blue Horizon You’re an Old Smoothie Till We Meet again On the Good Ship Lollipop Hooray for Hollywood Too Marvelous for Words 2

My Ideal Written by Whiting for Maurice Chevalier & Jeanette MacDonald in Playboy of Paris in 1930 and was Margaret’s favorite song of her father. The song became a hit. It was redone and again returned to popularity in 1944 as Margaret’s first hit recording.

Till We Meet Again This song was originally titled Auf Wiedersehen, and written during the First World War. The publisher, when shown the song with its German title, gave it back and said: “This is wartime, my boy”. Whiting then threw it in the waste basket and left the room. His secretary retrieved it from the basket and later the publisher Remick asked to hear it. He liked it but asked them to change the title which they did to Till We Meet Again.” Lyricist Ray Egan was present when Whiting was doodling at the piano and said, “Why not vary that doodle and put thirds in it?”, and the song was born. It was entered into a song contest and won. The song became one of the most popular during the era of the WWI. The sheet music sold over 5 million copies.

On the Good Ship Lollipop Whiting was asked to write a song for Shirley Temple in her first starring movie role - Bright Eyes in 1934. He couldn’t seem to get an idea for the song. Whiting’s daughter, Margaret, licking a large lollipop, came to see him. He told her to get away from him with all that sticky stuff. After he remarked about the stickiness of the lollipop an idea came to him. He thought that maybe the lollipop might be a good subject to write about. Thus he wrote one of the most famous children’s songs ever - On the Good Ship Lollipop.

Harry Warren

Warren was born Salvatore Guaragna, to Italian immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York on Dec. 24, 1893. He was the 11th of 12 children. His parents couldn’t afford music lessons so Warren taught himself to play a number of musical instruments including the piano and the accordion. He left school at fifteen and played his first music job as a drummer with the John Victor band. He then played with various traveling carnival shows; as a stagehand for a vaudeville theater; and as a property man and an offstage pianist at the Vitagraph Studios. Warren was in the U.S. Navy during World War I and it was during this time that he began writing songs. I Learned to Love You When I Learned My A-B-C’s was one of his first efforts. He wrote both the words and music for it. He was never published but was heard by the publishing house of Stark and Cowan and he was hired as a pianist and song plugger for the firm. Warren’s first published song (and a hit) was Rose of the Rio Grande, written in 1922 with Edgar Leslie and Ross Gorman. This was the beginning of Warren’s song writing career and with his collaboration throughout his career with numerous lyricists. Some of his other noted songs during the 1920s were I Love My Baby and my Baby Loves Me, and Where do you Worka John? He also wrote some songs for Broadway shows in the early 1930s including I Found a Million Dollar Baby in a Five-and-ten Cents Store, and You’re My Everything. After writing songs for a few minor movies between 1929 and 1933, he made Hollywood his permanent home in 1933 when he and lyricist Al Dubin were hired to write for Warner Brothers and the movie 42nd Street. In this movie were the songs Shuffle off to Buffalo and You’re Getting to be a Habit with Me. Al Dubin was the lyricist with whom Warren wrote many of his most popular songs with. They wrote some twenty musicals including the well known songs We’re in the Money, I Only Have Eyes for You, Lullaby of Broadway, (his first Oscar winner, from Gold Diggers of 1935), Lulu’s Back in Town, and September in the Rain. Warren wrote some songs with lyricist Johnny Mercer – namely Jeeper’s Creepers and You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby. He won his second Oscar for the song You’ll Never Know. From 1945 to 1952 he worked at MGM, and won his third Oscar, in partnership with Johnny Mercer for On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe, from The Harvey Girls. Other songs Warren wrote during this period were This Heart of Mine, and Friendly Star. Warren moved to Paramount in the 1950s writing scores for dramatic movies such as An Affair to Remember and Separate Tables. On his eightieth birthday he was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He died in Los Angeles on Sept. 22, 1981.

Lullaby of Broadway Buttons & Bows At Last 5

On the Atchison,Topeka & Santa Fe Shuffle Off to Buffalo I’ll Get By Chattanooga Choo Choo I’ll String Along With You That’s Amore An Affair to Remember I Only Have Eyes For You You’ll Never Know I Found a Million Dollar Baby Blues n the Night Cheerful Little Earful Jeepers, Creepers By the River Sainte Marie Wyatt Earp theme You’re My Everything Rose of the Rio Grande 42nd Street September in the Rain

Lullaby of Broadway Al Dubin and Harry Warren needed a song that would fit the movie they were working on. Both struggled one evening for an idea. Dubin decided that he was hungry and asked if Harry wanted something to eat. Harry was a light eater but Dubin was not. Harry couldn’t eat anything at that time due to the heat, but watched Al stow away a couple of steaks, quantities of vegetables and half a pie. Warren wrote the melody first and gave it to Dubin. Several days later Dubin had Warren come over to his house. The two argued all the time about New York vs. Hollywood and the merits of each city. Harry like N.Y. Warren, who liked L.A., continued to doodle and kept playing a sequence of notes. As Dubin paused at the doorway, hearing the patterns of notes Warren was playing he said “Give me a lead sheet of that and I’ll see if I can get something for it.” Dubin, now at his beach home, phoned Warren, “Come on down, Harry, I think I have something. Maybe we can finish this song tonight.” Upon arriving and beginning to work they resumed the old argument about which city was the better place to live, Hollywood or N.Y. Dubin handed Warren a lyric, “Come on along and listen to the lullaby of Broadway”. “This is great,” said Warren. He sat down at the piano and beginning with the phrase and he began to build a tune to fit the lyrics. In an hour they had finished. When finished They played it for Jack Warner who didn’t like it but Busby Berkeley did. Warner wanted Dubin to write new lyrics but Warren said he would write a new song but would not divorce this lyric from this melody. Jolson heard it and demanded song for his picture. “He got it,” Al said. The song won Warren his second Oscar presented to him in 1935. Warren won three Oscars - You’ll Never Know -1943, and On the A.T. & Santa Fe - 1946. 6

Jeepers, Creepers

In the 1938 picture Going Places, of 1938 and sung by Louie Armstrong. Johnny Mercer and his wife had gone to see a movie at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater. The movie had Henry Fonda playing a farm boy. In the movie Fonda saw something unusual that impressed him and he said “Jeepers creepers,” and that just rang a little bell in Mercer’s head. He immediately wrote it down when he got out of the movie. In those days “Jeepers Creepers” was a kind of a polite way to saying "Jesus Christ”. Soon the lyric was completed. In the film, the male lead has to ride a horse (without experience on them) in a race. Armstrong (the horse’s groom) and his band are in a wagon running alongside of the horse singing this song which claims the horse.

September in the Rain Leo Forbstein wanted a tune ‘to sprinkle here and there’ in a picture that was in the works. It was Dubin who came up with the title. Warren wrote the melody from the title. It was sung by Jimmie Melton in Melody for Two in 1937.

Chattanooga Choo Choo - 1941 Mack Gordon and Harry Warren wrote the song while traveling on the Southern RR “Birmingham Special” train. The lyrics tell the story of traveling from N.Y. City to Chattanooga. The inspiration for the song was a small, wood burning steam locomotive belonging to the Cincinnati Southern RR. Most trains going south passed thru Chattanooga. Chattanooga is a Creek Indian word meaning “rock coming to a point”, referring to the mountain range that stretches 880 miles through the states of Alabama and Georgia, “coming to a point” at Lookout Mountain.

You’ll Never Know - 1943 A song was needed to express the leading female’s feeling of unrequited love. “The song was a problem to write,” said Warren. It had to serve two purposes. It had to fit into the period setting and sound like an old ballad and express feelings of the war-separated lovers. It won an Oscar that year.

That’s Amore - 1952 From the movie The Caddy starring Martin and Lewis. In the movie Martin is an Italian immigrant and sings this song (at first they were going to use some traditional Italian song). Warren thought it should be an original and prevailed on Martin and Lewis to let him write an original song. It became a big hit for Martin. In his book “Dean and Me” Lewis states: “In 1952, we were in preproduction on our new picture The Caddy, and we needed some songs for Dean. So I went to the great Harry Warren, the Oscar-winning writer of such songs as Forty-Second Street, You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby, and Chattanooga Choo-Choo, and his lyricist Jack Brooks, and paid them $30,000 out of my own pocket. I didn’t want Dean to know I hired them and I never told him.”

Buttons and Bows - 1947 In movie The Paleface, Bob Hope sang it. The song was a big hit by Dinah Shore. The studio was excited about this ‘cute little song’ which won the Oscar in 1948 for Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. [ Karl, why is this here since it was not a Harry Warren song? ]

I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo The prolific composer Harry Warren had a tune going through his head and decided, with Johnny Mack, to write a song and spell out the title. Warren had lived a short time in Kalamazoo when he was young and had carved his name on the wall of a railroad station there. It was the basis for the lyrics. While it wasn’t the first song to spell out the title, it was an angle that worked. It was featured in the film Orchestra Wives in 1942.

Harold Arlen

Harold Arlen was born Hyman Arluck, the son of a synagogue cantor, in Buffalo, New York on Feb. 19, 1905. He emerged as one of the greatest of all American composers and songwriters, writing extraordinarily complex melodies and harmonies that somehow remained accessible to a broad popular audience. He grew up in Buffalo, attended public schools and studied music with instructors Arnold Corneilssen and Simon Bucharoff. By age seven he was singing in his father’s synagogue choir and by age fifteen he had become a professional pianist and entertainer in night clubs and lake steamers. In his late teens he organized the Snappy Trio, which later became the Southbound Shufflers, and the trio found its way to New York City. In Manhattan, Arlen found a home as a singer, pianist and arranger with dance bands and eventually with Arnold Johnson’s pit orchestra for the Broadway revue George White’s Scandals of 1928. Arlen appeared at the Palace Theater in New York and did several tours on Loew’s vaudeville circuit. He continued to work on Broadway writing songs for musicals: 9:15 Revue, Earl Carroll Varieties (1920 and 1932), Americana, George White’s Music Hall Varieties, and The Show is On. He also wrote entire scores for the Broadway shows You Said It, Cotton Club Parade, Life Begins at 3:40, Hooray for What, Bloomer Girl, St. Louis Woman, House of Flowers, Jamaica, Saratoga and Free and Easy, a blues opera. Arlen collaborated with the greatest of the Tin Pan Alley lyricists, including E.Y. ‘Yip’ Harburg, Johnny Mercer, Ted Koehler, Leo Robin, Ira Gershwin, Dorothy Fields and Truman Capote. Arlen was also active in Hollywood producing some of the greatest film musicals of the era including the Wizard of Oz, Let’s Fall in Love, Blues in the Night, Star Spangled Rhythm, Cabin in the Sky, Up in Arms, Kismet, My Blue Heaven, Gay Purree, Down Among the Sheltering Palms and A Star is Born. The Harold Arlen catalog boast the individual standards Sweet and Hot (1930, lyric by Jack Yellen), Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (1931, lyric by Ted Koehler), I Gotta Right To Sing the Blues (1932, lyric by Ted Koehler), Stormy Weather (1933, with Ted Koehler), Fun to be Fooled (1934, with Ira Gershwin and E.Y. Harburg), Last Night When We Were Young (1935, with E.Y. Harburg), Blues in the Night (1941, lyric by Johnny Mercer), 15

That Old Black Magic (1942,with Johnny Mercer), Happiness is a Thing Called Joe (1942, with E.Y. Harburg), My Shining Hour (1943, with Johnny Mercer), One for My Baby (1943, with Johnny Mercer), the Positive (1944, with Johnny Mercer), Out of This World (1945, with Johnny Mercer), Any Place I hang My Hat is Home (1946, lyric by Johnny Mercer), I Wonder What Became of Me (1946, with Johnny Mercer), Come Rain or Come Shine (1946, with Johnny Mercer), The Man That Got Away (1954, with Ira Gershwin), I Love a Parade, and One for my Baby. With a catalog of some of the greatest standards from Tin Pan Alley, the standout continues to be the unforgettable score for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. The film score includes a collection of songs, most notably the celebrated Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Blues in the Night, Linda, Accent the Positive, It’s Only a Paper Moon. World on a String, Get Happy, and Stormy Weather. Between the Devil and Deep Blue Sea Get Happy I Love A Parade Last Night When We Were Young It’s Only A Paper Moon Linda Stormy Weather I’ve Got the World on a String Over the Rainbow Come Rain or shine Blues in the Night Ac-Cen-Chu-Ate the Positive Old Black Magic – 1942 One for My Baby Let’s Fall in Love

Come Rain or Come Shine This song was written one evening at Harold Arlen’s house. Harold went into the living room and toyed around with an idea. Mercer liked it. Johnny’s first line was, “I’m gonna love you, like nobody’s loved you.” Hearing that, Arlen jokingly said “Come hell or high water.” Mercer remarked, “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that – “Come rain or come shine”? They completed the song that same night.

Stormy Weather - 1938 Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck) and Ted Koehler wrote this song for the Cotton Club’s Parade of 1933 for Cab Calloway. Arlen wrote the first line: “Don’t know why...” Thirty minutes later they were finished. But Duke Ellington was signed, not Cab. The song had been written in ½ hour at a party in 1933. When Ethel Waters who wasn’t sure of appearing in the show heard the song she changed her mind and signed up. She sang the song only one show a night, not multiple shows as was the policy. The song was used by the Germans with a lyric that was suppose to be Churchill singing – “Since my ships and the German planes got together, I’m beaten all the time.”

I’ve Got the World on a String This song was written by Arlen and Koehler in 1932 for the Cotton Club Parade – the 21st edition. Among the stars in the show were the Nicolas Brothers and Cab Calloway and his orchestra. It was a big hit and has remained one throughout the years.

The Wizard of Oz

The story as filmed is a satire. Oz = ounce of gold, Scarecrow = Western farmer, Tin man = American factory worker. Lion = Wm. Jennings Bryan; Emerald City was the New Deal and the gold vs. silver controversy was a secret theme in the story. MGM wanted Jerome Kern to write the music for Oz. Originally the studio wanted Shirley Temple for the Garland part. Buddy Ebsen was the first Tin Man but nearly died from the aluminum-powder makeup and was replaced by Ray Bolger, necessitating four months of reshooting. [ Karl, the New Deal part makes little sense because it occurred during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first term 1933-37. The book and all the other alleged secret meanings occurred 30-40 years earlier. Is this all just somebody’s theory or did author Frank L. Baum or lyricist Yip Harburg agree to it?]

Over the Rainbow Written in his car when Harold Arlen and his wife Anya were going to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Another story goes that Arlen was sitting in his car in front of the original Schwab’s Drug Store in Hollywood. Arlen wrote the bridge first, the next day he completed the song. Yip Harburg wrote the lyrics. At first Yip didn’t like the song and thought it was done too slowly. Producer thought Rainbow too grand for the other songs in the movie. The song was almost cut, from the movie thinking it made the film too long and that it slowed down the action too early as it was sung in the early part of the movie. Ira Gershwin liked it and it was kept in though he thought it should be speeded up a bit. The original title for the song was Where I Want to Be. Yip put a lot of effort into the first line. One idea was “I’ll go over the rainbow,” and “Someday over the rainbow.” Final 19

selection was “Somewhere over the Rainbow.” Harburg said that the lyrics had a political significance. He expressed hope for America with President Roosevelt’s “New Deal” program which was originated with the idea of getting America out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. This political view was expressed in an earlier paragraph. There was a lack of enthusiasm for the song at MGM. Three times the studio attempted to delete the song from the picture. Arthur Freed, the producer and a songwriter in his own right, insisted that the song remain in the picture. In 2000 it was voted the ‘song of the century.’ The song won the Oscar over Tara’s Theme from Gone with the Wind (1939). The film was nominated for six Oscars but had the misfortune of being released the same year as Gone with the Wind. Its only other Oscar was for the best score. Shirley Temple was to be the first Dorothy but Fox Studios would not release her, thus Garland did the role.

Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive Johnny Mercer recalled his developing the theme for this song: “When I was working with Benny Goodman back in 1939, I had a publicity guy who told me he had been to hear Father Divine, and the subject of his sermon was ‘Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.’ Well, that amused me so and it sounds so Southern and so funny that I wrote it down on a piece of paper. Five years later, taking a drive with Harold Arlen, I asked him to hum a spiritual. A strange thing about your subconscious because the lyrics that lay dormant for years suddenly begin to surface and the minute he sang the tune it jumped into my mind”. Mercer brightened up with one line [unclear, rewrite]- “You’ve got to accentuate the positive.” In the movie Here Come The Waves.

I Love a Parade Harold Arlen gave this explanation of the writing of this song: “Ted Koehler and I were talking a walk one day and it was very cold out. To pep us up Ted began to ad-lib a marching tune. I guess I started to fall into step and got warmed up. By the end of the walk, the song was written”.

Let’s Fall in Love - 1933 Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler wrote the song aboard The Chief bound for Hollywood. The composer tried out his melody for the first time with the aid of the musical chimes used by the porter to announce mealtime. The song was used in a number of movies.

Blues in the Night 1941. Setting: a man in jail next to a Negro in next cell singing blues. In two days Arlen gave melody to Mercer. Movie Hot Nocturne changed to Blues in the Night.

It’s Only A Paper Moon – 1933 Producer Billy Rose was doing a new play called The Great Magoo, a story by Ben Hecht. It was about life among the workers at Coney Island. Rose phoned Arlen to have him write a song for the production Yip Harburg the lyricist recalled the situation: “Rose called and said, ‘We need a song here for guy who’s a Coney Island barker, a very cynical guy who falls in love and finds that the world is not all Coney Island – not papier mache and lights and that sort of gaudy stuff. But it’s got to be a love song.’ Well, I tried to think of a cynical love story, something that this kind of a guy would sing. But I could never really be cynical. I could see life in all its totality, its reality”. The two finally came up with a work and called it, “If You Believed in Me.” But the show was a flop. When actress June Knight sang the song in a movie it began to be noticed. The real break came when Nat “King” Cole recorded it with his trio in 1944. Paul Whiteman had recorded the song in 1933. In the future it was to be recorded by artists too numerous to mention and has become a jazz standard.

George Gershwin

Gershwin was born in 1898 and although he died at a very young age, he made a lasting impression on both the classical and popular field of music composition. He first showed interest in music when he was ten and began playing a piano that was bought for his brother Ira, who would become his lyricist in many musical endeavors. He studied with various teachers but his main teacher was Charles Manbitzer. His first big hit with hit was “Swanee,” written with Irving Caesar (lyrics). His Broadway career began around 1924 with the musical comedy “Lady Be Good.” and many others followed. In 1924 he made a lasting impression with his composition “Rhapsody in Blue.” Probably his most famous work was Porgy and Bess written in 1935. Al Jolson and Jerome Kern were working on this material but Jolson sold it to George after Jolson got a call to go to Hollywood and make the first major ‘talkie’, The Jazz Singer. George was involved in a ten-year affair with Kay Swift and the musical “Oh Kay” was named after her. He died of a brain tumor in 1937 at the age of 38. [ The Jazz Singer was not the first talkie and to repeat this myth would expose your research to criticism.]

Summertime Lisa It Ain’t Necessarily So Love Walked In I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin‘ Our Love is Here to Stay I Got Rhythm Swanee The Man I Love A Foggy Day Somebody Loves Me I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise I’ve Got a Crush on You Someone to Watch Over Me They Can’t Take That Away From Me

Swanee While talking over lunch at Dinty Moore’s with George Gershwin, Irving Caesar suggested they write a one-step in the style of Hindustan. “Let’s use an American location,” said George, “like Foster did in Swanee River.” Shortly they agreed on Swanee. By the time they rode to George’s apartment on West 144th Street in New York City they just about had the song. When they arrived at the Gershwin home in Washington Heights a poker game was going on with Papa Gershwin. The players were disturbed when Gershwin and Caesar went to the piano and worked out the song but once it was finished they stopped the game and George played it for them. The two completed it in less then one half hour. Gershwin later said it was written in 15 to 18 minutes. Arthur Pryor had the band at the Capital Theater so a band arrangement was made and played by Pryor. At a party George played it, Jolson heard it and used it in his concert at the Winter Gardens and included it in his show “Sinbad.” The score for the show was by Sigmund Romberg. It was the only Gershwin song to sell over a million copies (it sold over 2 million).

Porgy and Bess

The play Porgy and Bess by Dorothy and DuBose Heyward is 559 pages. The show takes 4-1/2 hours to perform. Al Jolson had bought the book and was going to do it on Broadway (in blackface) with Jerome Kern hired to do the music. But Jolson was asked to do the first major ‘talkie’ in Hollywood (The Jazz Singer) and sold the rights to George Gershwin who made it into a masterpiece of 20th century music.

Summertime – 1934 This was the first song completed before writing the rest of the score in twenty months. Gershwin was writing Summertime at Kay Halle's apartment. She related: “George and I had an arrangement. If I might be out and George might want to use my piano, the desk would give him my key. When coming home one night I found George at the piano. He said ‘Sit down, I think I have the lullaby.’ After so many other attempts he sang me his latest. It was exquisite. It was Summertime”. Summertime opens Porgy and Bess instead of the original planned number, Jasbo Brown. Jasbo had required an entire extra stage set which was thought to be too expensive, thus the setting for Summertime.

It Ain’t Necessarily So In Porgy and Bess, Ira Gershwin wanted to give ‘Sportin’ Life a cynical and irreligious attitude. George improvised the scat sound. Together in a week or two they worked out the unusual construction of the song in a week or two.

Bess, You Is My Woman Now This was the first duet for Porgy and Bess. When George played it for his editor, the editor cried.

Liza One of Gershwin’s favorite compositions. Sung by Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler. Director Vincent Minnelli named his daughter after this song (Liza Minnelli).

Embraceable You Gershwin’s father thought this song was about him after hearing some of the lyrics of the song - “Come to papa, come to papa, do.” The song was used earlier in “East is West,” then later used in his musical “Girl Crazy”.

Soon Derived from a four-bar melodic fragment from the first act of the band’s orchestra parts and expanded it to a full-blown tune. In Gershwin’s musical Strike Up the Band.

I’ve Got a Crush on You Originally this was a hot duet number, sung and danced ^in a hot and fast tempo by Clifton Webb and Mary Hay in Strike up the Band in a hot and fast tempo. Lee Wiley, after Gershwin’s death, slowed it down and sang it in a sentimental mood, later reprised by Linda Ronstadt.

The Man I Love When the Gershwin brothers were working on Lady be Good, George opened his notebook and took out one of the tunes. He played it for Ira who said, “That verse would make a good chorus, better than the one you’ve got”. Ira began to put words to the new ‘chorus’. It was entitled The Man I Love and was to be sung by Adele Astaire. The producer didn’t like the song and it got taken out of show. It was thought to be have slowed up the action and was too hard to sing, with all those chromatics, and it considered that it was too slow in a show filled with dancing and rhythm. Lady Mountbatten liked it and took a copy back to England. Meanwhile the Gershwins were working on Strike up the Band. The tune was tried and cut from that show. It was again tried in a show called Rosalie but was cut from its third show. Returning tourists from England began talking about how popular the song was in England. It crossed the channel with Lady Louis Mountbatten where she had the Berkeley Square Orchestra introduce it in London. Later it was played in Paris. It then found its way to America to become a hit. Thus the tune became popular in America in 1928 by Helen Morgan. When a revival of Lady Be Good is performed the tune is included. The song was never heard on Broadway until the revival. It was first sung at a concert by Eva Gauthier with George as her accompanist. Gershwin once explained that the song took so long to get appreciated in the U.S. because the chromatics in the chorus made the melody difficult to be assimilate and it could not readily be sung or hummed without a piano accompaniment.

Someone to Watch Over Me From “Oh Kay” sung to a small rag doll, first in a jazzy tempo. Ira said he wrote the words about himself. The title of the song was suggested by lyricist Howard Dietz.

Love Walked In Only Gershwin tune to be on Your Hit Parade (1936) as most of Gershwin’s songs that were popular were before the start of having a listing of popular songs on a list and performed on the radio once a week. The songs were tallied from record and sheet music sales.

Fascinating Rhythm In the show Lady Be Good. In an Astaire dance number, Gershwin gave a dance step rhythm to Fred Astaire who couldn’t find an acceptable exit step for the dance. The title of the show, Lady Be Good, was used in place of replaced the original one, Black-Eyed Susan.

Of Thee I Sing The production of the musical won the Pulitzer Prize. The theme deals with the American political scene, satirizing inept politicians with limited vision and the voters who elected them. Some wanted to cut the word ‘baby’ from the first phrase as it wasn’t dignified but audience liked it so it was kept in. The word became a ‘catch’ word of the 1930s.

A Foggy Day Gershwin said he wrote the song in less than an hour.

But Not For Me [ What year? ] Introduced by Ginger Rogers in the show Girl Crazy. In the orchestra for this musical were Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Red Nichols, Jimmy Dorsey, Gene Krupa and Jack Teagarden.

I’ll Build a Staircase to Paradise Ira, George and B. G. DeSylva worked until 2 AM in the morning creating this number. We see in it the use of the flatted 3rd and 7th, a characteristic that shows Gershwin’s use of the jazz style. As originally composed by George and Ira the song was entitled A New Step Every Day. The songwriter Bud DeSylva suggested revisions in the lyrics, entered as Ira’s collaborator and proposed changing the title to I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise. Ira used his pen name on the sheet music (Arthur Francis) The song I’ll Build a Staircase to Paradise was a song that originated from a line in the show A New Step Every Day. After its opening night, Ira, George and DeSylva wrote I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise. Known in its time as “the most perfect piece of jazz yet written.”

Bidin’ My Time The title for this song came from a verse Ira Gershwin had written for his college newspaper. Sung by a male quartet of ‘rubes’ accompanying themselves on the harmonica, Jew’s harp, ocarina and tin flute. It was a take-off on the Western ballad style. It was in the show Girl Crazy.

Somebody Loves Me This song became the rage of Paris when introduced at the Moulin Rouge. It contains Gershwin’s use of the flatted 5th.

Our Love is Here to Stay This was the last song that George Gershwin wrote and it had to be reconstructed by Vernon Duke. Gershwin had not written the song down. Oscar Levant remembered the harmonies that Gershwin played, thus the song was saved by Duke and Levant. The working title was “It’s Here to Stay.”

I Got Rhythm This song became a signature tune for a young girl’s first appearance on Broadway in Gershwin’s Girl Crazy. This song had built-in dynamics, enough to blow the stage to smithereens, and then not-yet-famous Ethel Merman put in her own TNT and the song became the hit of the show. When she got to the second chorus it is said that she forgot the words and just held a high C for sixteen bars. From then on it was part of her performance to sing the song the same way she did the first time – putting in the sixteen-bar high C. Merman had been hired for a salary of $375 a week. Ira Gershwin worked for two weeks on the lyrics of this song using a ‘dummy’ set of lyrics – “Roly-poly, eating solely, ravioli, better watch your diet or bust. Lunch or dinner, you’re a sinner, please get thinner, losing all that fat is a must.” When Ira used the title, I Got Rhythm, he was criticized as it was not good English grammar and should be “I’ve Got Rhythm.” Ira used the phrase, “Who could ask for anything more”, as a working title but thought that the first line of the refrain sounded more arresting and provocative, thus the title “I Got Rhythm”

Ethel Merman 36

They Can’t Take That Away From Me The only Gershwin song nominated for an Academy Award – 1937 (the winner was Sweet Leilani). In the Gershwin musical Girl Crazy. In the pit band for the show were Red Nichols, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, and Jimmy Dorsey. Eight of the songs in the show were hit songs. It starred Ethel Merman and Ginger Rogers.